The Party Control Committee oversaw the party discipline of the party members and candidate party members in terms of their observance of the Programme and regulations of the Party, state discipline and Party ethics. It administered punishments, including expulsions from the Party. The Party Control Committee also considered the appeals of party members punished by their local Party organizations.

It was through this committee that Joseph Stalin consolidated near complete control of the Soviet secret police and eventually of the Soviet Union. Stalin was never the official leader of the secret police agencies, but since all secret police leaders were appointed to the Control Committee by Stalin, he was thus able to indirectly control the workings of the secret police.